Follow the author of this article

Follow the topics within this article

We thought it would all be over by now; that Britain would have reprised its traditional summer pattern of roughly two days’ sunshine (to get everyone’s hopes up and shirts off), followed by a long stretch of unpredictable, patchy, always-pack-a-cardigan-just- in-case weather. We have, as a nation, spent many years familiarising ourselves with this outcome, greeting it with a resigned shrug when another summer rolls around.

This year, however, has been different. We have been ambushed, yes, ambushed, by a heatwave of proportions we were ill-prepared for, and to which we are struggling to adapt. Should we be taking siestas like the Spanish? (Clearly not - sleeping al-desko rarely plays well with...

Register for free to read this article, or log in to your Telegraph account